I think especially in a world where you have so little say about what goes on in your life, or in the politics of the world around you, it is wonderful to go into that studio, and tell yourself what to do.

On the other hand, I think it is wonderful for everyone to take ballet classes, at any age. It gives you a discipline, it gives you a place to go. It gives you some control in your life.

That the work involved, the willingness to take chances, the commitment, the opportunity to get on stage and make people happy, was more important than becoming famous, or even what I was dancing.

The particular ballet was not so important as the fact that I was physically healthy, and capable of getting out there and dancing as often as possible.

When you are on stage, you don't see faces. The lights are in your eyes and you see just this black void out in front of you. And yet you know there is life out there, and you have to get your message across.

You don't learn from a situation where you do something well. You enjoy it and you give yourself credit, but you don't really learn from that. You learn from trial and error, trial and error, all the time.

It's ungrateful to be wishing you were doing something else at the moment you are living. You haven't lived in the moment that you are really living, you are wishing you were somewhere else.

There is pain and sacrifice in everyone's world. That's why, when I was dancing, I had no pain.

Even though I am a professional, and I know what the steps are, I don't quite know how I'm going to do them, because I haven't lived that moment yet. I always feel very insecure and I get very excited.

And I just thought, this is what I want to be. And I knew that dancing would be my chosen profession.

As soon as I hear music, something in me starts to vibrate.

But what was my motivation was music, and the fact that I love to move around. I'm always moving around.

I could work out a lot of my emotions by going to class and dancing.

I didn't have any doubts about my choice of career, but I had constant doubts about my ability, yes.

I learned to love dance for its own sake.

I liked tap, because I liked hearing the results of my movements.

I liked to read but, being a dancer, I didn't have a lot of time to read.

I loved tests because it was another form of competing, a healthy competition.

I used to love to play dress-up, where you get your mother's or your grandmother's dresses and high heels.

I was very much of a tomboy.